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October 12, 2011

Sony Announces Security Breach Of Up To 93,000 Accounts

by editor

Sony announced another embarrassing security breach this morning when the company confirmed it had suspended 93,000 accounts on its online entertainment networks after detecting a wave of unauthorized sign-in attempts that took place between October 7 and 10.

Sony spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka said the hackers were successful in matching valid sign-in IDs and passwords from the accounts on its PlayStation Network, Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment services, reports the AFP news agency.

The entertainment giant has temporarily locked the accounts and would not rule out if credit card details associated with those accounts were not compromised. Sony is continuing investigations into the extent of the access attempts and it would notify affected account holders to advise them to reset their passwords, reports Bloomberg´s Mariko Yasu.

Sean Yoneda of Sony explained that the latest security lapse did not result in similar numbers of compromised accounts as a data breach in April that affected more than 100 million accounts, forcing it to temporarily halt its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.

“This time nothing was taken or potentially taken from our data servers,” Yoneda said.

The breach was discovered when Sony detected an unusually high number of failed login attempts, said Yoneda. The company suspects that those responsible obtained large data sets from other companies or sources, which were then used to try to access Sony accounts, reports Tomoko A. Hosaka of the Associated Press.

Sony fully restored its PlayStation related network and Qriocity services globally by July, after the former breach and pledged to boost the overall security infrastructure, budgeting $182 million in security upgrades after the April hacker attacks..

Analysts say further attacks would threaten Sony´s brand image and undermine its efforts to link its gadgets to an online “cloud-based” network of games, movies and music that relies on consumer security confidence.

On top of these attacks, Sony is still recovering from the impact on production of Japan´s March 11 earthquake, with it incurring additional costs for security upgrades and compensating consumers.